Serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase, other function tests and microscopy of the liver to resolve the efficacy of the lipotropic mix for fatty liver syndrome

Vita.Studies were conducted to determine if specific parameters could be measured which would indicate the degrees of liver damage in fatty: liver syndrome in the laying hen. The first study was conducted with 24 hens from a flock which had completed 11 months of production on a diet considered complete by nutritional standards. These birds had a history of mortality from I liver steatosis and hemorrhage. Liver damage, as indicated by SGOT; level and the formol gel test, was studied in relation to parameters used to indicate fatty liver syndrome. A second study was conducted to determine the liver ultrastructure of hens which had liver damage as indicated by high SGOT levels. A third experiment was designed to determine the efficacy of a lipotropic mix by measuring the effect of the lipotropic mix¹ on SGOT levels, serum albumin and globulins, measurements of liver steatosis, and liver hemorrhage scores. Biopsy of the liver allowed a histological score, based on vacuolation of the liver, before and after the experimental treatments were applied. This also provided for electron micrographs. Twenty-seven hens were fed a basal diet or a basal diet plus a lipotropic mix for a period of 25 days with production parameters collected during this period. At the end of a two-week period, hens were biopsied to obtain sections for electron micrographs.